so trying it out upon an even
match and they were more ignorant in ranging and arraying their battles.
After, they grew to rest upon number rather competent, than vast; they
grew to advantages of place, cunning diversions, and the like: and they
grew more skilful in the ordering of their battles.

In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state,
learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining
age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandize. Learning hath his
infancy, when it is but beginning and almost childish; then his youth,
when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it
is solid and reduced; and lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and
exhaust. But it is not good to look too long upon these turning wheels
of vicissitude, lest we become giddy. As for the philology of them, that
is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for this writing.

Of Fame

THE poets make Fame a monster. They describe her in part finely and
elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously. They say, look how
many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath; so many
tongues; so many voices; she pricks up so many ears.

This is a flourish. There follow excellent parables; as that, she
gathereth strength in going; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet
hideth her head in the clouds; that in the daytime she sitteth in a
watch tower, and flieth most by night; that she mingleth things done,
with things not done; and that she is a terror to great cities. But that
which passeth all the rest is: They do recount that the Earth, mother
of the giants that made war against Jupiter, and were by him destroyed,
thereupon in an anger brought forth Fame. For certain it is, that
rebels, figured by the giants, and seditious fames and libels, are but
brothers and sisters, masculine and feminine. But now, if a man can tame
this monster, and bring her to feed at the hand, and govern her, and
with her fly other ravening fowl and kill them, it is somewhat worth.
But we are infected with the style of the poets. To speak now in a sad
and serious manner: There is not, in all the politics, a place less
handled and more worthy to be handled, than this of fame. We will
therefore speak of these points: What are false fames; and what are true
fames; and how they may be best discerned; how fames may be sown, and
raised; how they may be spread, and multiplied; and how they may be